Pyrolysis plant
Sealed, indirectly heated reactor with gas and oil recovery, for material the mechanical route cannot clean.
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01
Why deep processing is a separate business
Mechanical dismantling recovers the two easy streams: aluminium and glass. Everything else leaves in a mixed fraction that contains the encapsulant, the backsheet, the cells and the metals printed onto them. Selling that fraction is easy and cheap; getting the metals out of it is neither.
The reason is concentration. Silver, copper and silicon are present in the parts-per-thousand range of a whole module. No chemical or thermal process will run economically on a stream that dilute — but the same processes work perfectly well on a cell concentrate where the metals have been gathered into a few percent of the mass. Deep processing is therefore a concentration problem before it is a chemistry problem.
That is also why the order matters: the dismantling line has to produce a clean, separated feed before any of the routes below is worth buying.
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The three families of route
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Which route does what
| Route | Input it needs | What it produces | Principal constraint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanical separation | Dismantled, size-reduced module material | Glass cullet, aluminium, copper-bearing and cell fractions | Cannot separate the metals locked inside the cell metallisation |
| Pyrolysis | Dismantled material with encapsulant and backsheet still attached | Gas, oil and a solid residue of glass, metals and char | Emissions control, burner train and permit; oil must be assayed |
| Tunnel-kiln delamination | Frameless laminates | Glass panes or cullet with the encapsulant driven off | Continuous thermal operation and abatement; fixture design decides glass quality |
| Aluminium melting | Frames removed intact by the deframing step | Clean secondary aluminium | Silicone and glass must be removed first or the remelt will not accept it |
| Silver recovery | A separated, crushed cell concentrate | Silver powder and, after melting, silver ingots | Only viable on concentrate; reagents, effluent and assay are all project-specific |
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Walk through the routes
Feed preparation
Every route below starts from what the dismantling line produced. Frame and junction box removed, glass separated where possible, material reduced to a working particle size.
Input
Dismantled module material
Output
A defined, weighed feed with a known composition
Equipment
Dismantling line · size reduction · screening
Risk
Feeding a mixed, wet or oversized stream — the most common reason a downstream route under-performs
Thermal delamination or pyrolysis
The encapsulant and backsheet are the two materials that mechanical separation cannot handle. A tunnel kiln drives them off continuously; a pyrolysis reactor does it in a sealed, indirectly heated vessel and recovers the condensable fraction as oil.
Input
Frameless laminates or dismantled material
Output
Cleaner glass and metal solids; gas and oil from the pyrolysis route
Equipment
Tunnel kiln · pyrolysis reactor · condenser · abatement
Risk
Emissions and the assay of the oil. Neither is an equipment default — both are set by the feedstock and the permit.
Metal recovery from solids
Once the polymer is gone, the solids can be screened and separated properly. Aluminium and copper come out as metals; the cell material is gathered into a concentrate.
Input
Solid residue from the thermal stage
Output
Metal fractions and a cell concentrate
Equipment
Screening · magnetic and eddy-current separation · dust control
Risk
Dust. Thermal residue is fine and easily airborne; extraction and sealed transfer are part of the scope, not an accessory.
Aluminium melting
Frames that were removed intact carry silicone and glass fragments. Shredding, decoating, screening and cleaning remove both before the metal reaches the furnace, and the flue gas train handles what the decoating step releases.
Input
Frame sections removed by the deframing machine
Output
Secondary aluminium acceptable to a remelt operation
Equipment
Shredder · decoating furnace · drum screen · cleaning system · melting furnace · flue gas treatment
Risk
Skipping the pre-treatment. A frame that went through a shredder with the laminate is not clean feed.
Silver recovery from the concentrate
The cell concentrate goes into a hydrometallurgical route: leach the silver into solution, separate the insolubles, precipitate the silver, then refine it electrolytically and cast it. Two documented routes are shown on the silver page.
Input
Separated, crushed cell concentrate
Output
Silver powder and silver ingots
Equipment
Reaction vessels · solid–liquid separation · electrolytic refining · melting and casting
Risk
Feed concentration and chemistry control. Reagents, effluent treatment and assay are all site-specific and permit-dependent.
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Equipment for the deep-processing stages
Tunnel kiln
Continuous delamination on carriages, for plants that need throughput and can carry the abatement scope.
Open →Silver recovery line
Leach, precipitate, refine and cast — configured for a separated cell concentrate.
Open →Aluminium melting line
Shredding, decoating, screening, cleaning, melting and flue gas treatment as one line.
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What we will and will not tell you
The honest position on recovery rates
We will not publish a recovery percentage for these routes, because the number depends on the feedstock, the reagents, the operating discipline and the assay method — and a figure quoted from another project would be meaningless in yours. What we can do is describe the process accurately, tell you which inputs each route needs, and confirm specifications against your own material.
Likewise, the purity reached by a silver route is a property of the feed and the operating control, not of a machine. Where a design target is stated on this site it is labelled as a design target, and we recommend independent assay before anyone relies on it commercially.
Which fraction are you trying to upgrade?
Tell us what the dismantling line produces and what you want to sell. The route follows from the output specification, not from the equipment list.
FAQ
Questions
What is deep processing in PV module recycling?
Deep processing is everything that happens after mechanical dismantling. Dismantling recovers aluminium and glass; deep processing handles the fractions that are left — destroying or recovering the polymer with heat, and recovering the metals that sit inside the cell material.
Do I need pyrolysis if I already dismantle mechanically?
Only if the polymer fraction is a problem for you. If a downstream buyer accepts your mixed fraction as it is, mechanical separation is enough. Pyrolysis earns its place when you have to remove encapsulant and backsheet to meet a glass or metal specification, or when there is no outlet for the polymer.
Can silver be recovered from whole solar panels directly?
Not economically. Silver is roughly 0.03 to 0.05% of module mass, so a whole-module feed is far too dilute for a chemical route. Recovery only makes sense on a separated cell concentrate produced by the upstream dismantling and separation stages.
Which deep-processing route has the highest capital cost?
It depends on the scope, but the routes that involve heat or chemistry carry the largest non-equipment costs: emissions abatement, effluent treatment, permitting and operating discipline. Those costs are frequently larger than the machine itself, and they should be established before an equipment decision.
Do you build the whole deep-processing chain?
We build the mechanical front end ourselves and supply the thermal and metallurgical stages as configured lines. Reagents, effluent treatment and compliance for a chemical route remain project-specific and are established with your own advisors and regulator.
Send us the module mix and the through-put
Tell us what arrives at your gate and what has to leave. The engineering team replies with the station configuration, the scope boundary and the information still missing before drawings start.
- Modules — framed single-glass, double-glass, frameless, thin film, mixed
- Condition — intact, or a meaningful share damaged or bent
- Through-put — modules per hour or t/h, and your shift pattern
- Output — which fractions you sell or store, and to what specification
Prefer to talk first? WhatsApp +86 182 0399 3035 or email [email protected].